Beazley to be ambassador to the US

Kim Beazley will next year become Canberra's new man in Washington, using
connections from 27 years in politics to advance Australian ties with the United
States.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday handed the man he replaced as Labor leader the
top prize in diplomacy, the job of Australia's ambassador to the United States.
A renowned student of American politics, Mr Beazley has long been tipped as a
frontrunner for the job.
The former opposition leader never made it to prime minister, losing elections in
1998 and 2001, but the US job may make up for any regret he feels for those losses.
"I can't think of anything I would rather do at this point in time," Mr Beazley told
reporters.
"The United States is a country for which I have very great affection."
Mr Rudd told reporters the appointment was yet more evidence of the value Australia
attached to its relationship with the US.
"To our friends in the United States I believe it confirms the seriousness we attach
to this relationship," Mr Rudd said.
Washington is likely to be pleased with the appointment, which comes just days after
US President Barack Obama named Jeff Bleich as ambassador in Canberra, filling a
position that has laid vacant for eight months.
Mr Beazley will bring to the job skills and access few could match.
As a former defence minister, deputy prime minister and opposition leader, he
already has strong connections in Washington.
He has the ear of Mr Rudd and has a close relationship with Foreign Minister Stephen
Smith, a fellow West Australian, and Defence Minister John Faulkner, who was a
minister in the Keating government.
Michael Fullilove, the global issues director at the Lowy Institute, said Mr
Beazley's professional and personal qualities would be well-received in Washington.
"He brings a real stature to the job that no career diplomat could," he told AAP.
Washington is very alive to these things ... that will play very well."
Mr Beazley will take up the job in February next year, replacing Dennis Richardson
who comes back to Australia to run the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
He knows he has a big job ahead.
"There is always an immense and complex agenda on the table between Australia and
the United States," Mr Beazley said.
"You are addressing a multiplicity of constituencies in the United States and they
don't all agree.
"To filter the Australian national interest through that process and to keep your
bosses happy is a very difficult task indeed."
Highly regarded by both sides of politics, the coalition has welcomed Mr Beazley's
appointment, which came on the same day Brendan Nelson was appointed as a high-level
envoy to Europe.
"Mr Beazley's long-standing and enthusiastic engagement on the issues at the heart
of the relationship with our great friend and ally, the United States, makes him
ideally suited to the role as our next Australian Ambassador to Washington,"
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said in a statement.
"He is a man respected across the political divide, both here in Australia and in
the United States."